Thursday, October 16, 2008

I am a Cancer Survivor

By Dreama Peters10/16/08

My story begins in December 2007 while I was nursing an injury from a fall in my yard which resulted in a twisted pelvis. I will go ahead and tell you this pelvis injury was the most painful thing physically I have ever endured.Emotional pain on the other hand has been a different story. For the last two years I have been dealing with emotional pain at a level I never imagined I could endure. I lost my mother in April of 2006; six months later in October 2006 I lost my 14 year old granddaughter in a four wheeler accident. In January of 2008 I was diagnosed with breast cancer.As a Christian I know all things happen for a reason. We don’t always know what that reason is,….. just that there is one. I discovered a lump in my left breast in December while bedridden with the twisted pelvis. This is one example of God’s intervention for me, because had I not been in bed I would probably have ignored that spot, thinking that it was probably from one of the kids at school where I work, pushing or pulling on me.I next called the Women’s Healthcare in Dothan and made an appointment. They gave me one almost immediately. The day I went they did a mammogram, sonogram, and a biopsy. I was impressed because every other time I had a mammogram I would always have to go back later to do the sonogram.They called within a few days, and on January 2, 2008 I was diagnosed with a Stage 2 cancer. I was alone when I got the call and for a split second I was crushed, but suddenly a feeling of peace came over me. I knew right away what that peace was; it was the peace that surpasses all understanding.The next step was to call my husband and my children, and of course they were instantly devastated, you see, they didn’t know about that peace. My appointment had been made with Dr. Scott Robbins for January 5 and when I met him I knew once again my Jesus was ahead of me.So the journey began with a lumpectomy which revealed the cancer in one of the three nodes that were removed. This was good news because it meant that we had caught things early, but it also meant that I needed to have a partial masectomy. This was all said and done by January 18. As I was healing, I met my cancer doctor, Dr. Mayer, who was referred by Dr. Robbins. You see God had already chosen my Doctors.At this point I was told I would have to go until the first of August with chemo treatments every three weeks. After my third treatment Dr. Mayer informed me he was only going to give me one more treatment because I was responding so well, and that I was a perfect candidate for anti hormone therapy, which is a pill that I’ll take for the rest of my life.I am alive and doing well, back at work at Blountstown Elementary School, where I am a paraprofessional working with ESE children, with a brand new attitude about my life and where God has brought me from. You see I haven’t said a lot about the pain of my cancer because for me this pain in no way compares to the pain of losing my granddaughter. The cancer has healed, but she is still gone.In my afterthoughts I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the people God put in my path to help me through my ordeal. JoAnn Truette, thank you for standing so boldly in your faith, it gave me strength. Thanks to Kathy Roberts for being a true friend in Christ, you see these two kept pestering me until I bought a cancer policy back in November. Never expecting I would ever need it, this policy had to be in effect 30 days before it would pay the benefits, well guess what…… it had been in force 30 days on December 28 and I was diagnosed January 2. How is that for God looking out for me? He knows our needs.When tragedies such as these enter our lives, we find out who our friends are. Trust me, God has blessed me with a wonderful, loving family, a tremendous church family and more friends than I ever thought about having. Thanks to each and every person for any and everything you have done. Please remember early detection is your best defense!